Cabinets, Furniture, Woodworks/cabinet door

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Expert: - 2/8/2010


Question
What kind of hand plane is used to make the panel for a raised panel door?

Answer
Hi Brian,

Actually I'm sure today 99% of all raised panel cabinets are contoured with a router using a variety of router bits depending on what type of profile is desired.  (If you already know this and are just wanting to work with hand tools, my apologies for unnecessary information)

See them here:

http://www.infinitytools.com/Raised-Panel-Door-Router-Bit-Sets/products/1091/

If you are planning to make cabinets by hand, I salute you!  I myself, as a woodcarver, love working with traditional hand tools.

In the old days(and now and then today), before routers, hand "molding planes" were used, again which plane depended on which profile was desired.  There are so many different profiles available (as used or antique tools-you can buy new but old ones can be had cheaply, though I'm sure you probably need to sharpen them up a bit)that it would be difficult to direct you to specific ones but I would recommend looking at ogee and cove molding planes as they are probably what you are looking for to make raised panels inside edges.
Here are some pics for you.


http://www.oldtools.com/wooden.html

I also came across these sites that might be of interest to you.


http://www.thebestthings.com/molding_planes.htm

http://www.mymall.ws/Affiliates.d/Woodworking.d/Tools.d/rockler.d/articles.d/Rai...

Thanks for an interesting question and good luck with your project.

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I can answer most questions, regarding, wood sculpture, wood carving, carving tools and accessories and different types of woods.I am not an appraiser of carvings nor an antique dealer.

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I do full design work, custom carving, restoration, fabrication, repair and refinishing. I can take a piece of raw wood and turn it into a work of art and I can help you do the same. I am "the" carving instructor for the new york city parks dept. I am heavily involved in carving on the internet and belong to many, many mail lists which are quite active. I am also an international promoter of woodcarving and am affiliated with many master carvers, notably nora hall, originally from holland, now in the U.S. and kalina pavlova, a bulgarian master carver. I routinely communicate with the top names in professional woodcarving nationally and internationally.

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